Answer:
The dependent variable consisted of people's laughter, how much the couples laughed.
Explanation:
In her research, Dr. Ruth intends to measure the relationship between sexual stimulation and people's laughter. The variable that she can manipulate is the independent variable, in this case it is the sexual stimulation; the variable that will be measured is the dependent variable, which in this case is the amount of laughter that resulted from the manipulation of the independent variable.